I really enjoyed the experience of using Flipgrid, not so much because of Flipgrid itself but because of how it forced me to think of integrating technology into lessons. Initially I just thought, "Oh, this would be cool to use as an alternative to a traditional speaking assignment." Then I went further. "What if there is a journalism class at the school?" You could use Flipgrid or another video app as a way to simulate television reporting where you may only have a short time to convey a message. What if you have a student who is home for an extended illness but is trying to stay involved as much as possible? You could use a video to have them record their speech and present it to the class that way. (Then take a video of the class's reaction and send it back.) I know none of these concepts are groundbreaking, but this was a good reminder that new technology can make these sorts of things more accessible. No longer do you need to set up a huge camcorder in the back of the room to make simple and short presentations. I'm glad that I've had the opportunity to play with Flipgrid because it got me thinking about ways to engage with the faculty and the library's resources.
Social media is another topic this week that I feel strongly about. I know that I'm old by students' standards, but I'm a millennial, goshdarnit, and I'm going to use social media to the best of my ability.
I hesitate to do too much with social media before 8th grade due to these sites' age restrictions, but I know that older students could benefit from using social media as a way to engage with experts in areas they're studying and to stay abreast of current events that affect certain subjects. For example, when I was a senior in high school, I took an environmental studies class. If I was to take that class now, I know that I could have used Twitter and Instagram to follow experts in environmental science, which would have allowed me access to the most current thinking in the field.
I also realize that I have let my tech skills fall behind while staying home with my kids. I knew they were getting bad, but I didn't realize how bad until I tried to center that gif and found out that the <center> tag is now obsolete. While I am excited to create a library website at some point in the future, it is slowly dawning on me how much of a learning curve that's going to be if basic languages like html have changed that much. Again, I can see why as a library media specialist, you need to stay on top of technology.
I really enjoyed this week. The conversations on the discussion board are really interesting, and I'm learning so much from my peers.
1. First, social media IS the new media.
Yes! Will students think you're corny for trying to use social media to reach them? Probably. Will they still work with you on it? Definitely. It's a fun way to reach students, and it meets them where they are. I teach religious education to7th and 8th graders, and I often use Instagram posts I have found that are relevant to what we’re learning. We aren’t in the practice of creating social media posts, which would be too much for the amount of time we’re given. However, they do engage with watching short videos that show practical applications and new interpretations of what we’re learning. Social media certainly can be distracting, so I understand the snap decision to want to block these websites and apps. This is shortsighted, though, because it ignores all the creative and useful ways that social media can be used. By exploring hashtags, students can find the most current thinking in the areas being taught. Also, if you are encouraging students to do this in the classroom, you can show them how to best use social media for education, not just selfies.
2. Transparency is the new platform (for student work and student reading)
I hesitate to get too transparent in the way Valenza seems to present the idea. I like the idea of working with students through apps such as Google Classroom as a training tool, but students do need to be self-reliant. If you are always guiding them with their papers through Google Docs or are always available to chat on Hangouts, they can rely on you too much. Also, you have to be careful of professional boundaries. Students sometimes try to push what is appropriate with teachers, and if you are spending time with them on the internet, those lines may become blurred. It will be important for teachers and librarians using transparent technology with students to be careful about boundaries.
3. Global is the new literacy (the new author visit, the new field trip, the new textbook)
Totally! Technology is such a great way to reach authors in other parts of the world or connect with students in another area. You can have book groups with other schools, which would be especially fascinating if you were reading a book set another country or state and were able to discuss it with students from that location. Your students can also meet with experts in fields they are studying through apps like Skype in the Classroom (“Guest Speakers,” 2019). You can incorporate global literacy through class blogs, as well. Kathleen Morris, an education blogger, has had great success with this, and she offers some wonderful suggestions on her blog (Morris, 2018). I especially appreciated the suggestion to find bloggers who are at the same point as you in their blog experience. This way you can hopefully find someone with the same commitment to teaching global literacy.
4. Crowdsourcing/crowdfunding is the new bake sale/book sale.
Using evidence from other librarians on how certain practices worked for them is a great way to advocate for oneself. Crowdsourcing and crowd-advocating, if you will, can be an incredibly powerful tool because you go from saying, “I think this would work” to “I have done some research and found that these ten schools have successfully used this app in their libraries. I feel confident it would work for us, too.” I still feel uncertain about crowdfunding, unless you have a truly original idea that others will then be able to use themselves. The examples given by Valenza are good because they were obviously ideas the librarians felt were important.
5. 1:1/mobile is the new computer lab
While I generally feel confident that moving toward 1:1 library spaces is the way to go, I do feel that we need to be very careful on how we develop this. The library media specialist needs to be so careful that what is being taught is actually useful longterm. You don’t want to waste your students’ time spending a lot of time teaching a specific program or app that may not be around in five years. I thought of Prezi when I read this. I haven’t seen anyone use Prezi in a presentation in a very long time, but about ten years ago, it was all the rage. I wonder if people who invested time in learning how to create a presentation in Prezi feel now. Was following the trend useful for helping to keep up with technology in general? Or does it feel like a waste of time? I then think about PowerPoint, which has been such an important program that it was then copied by others like Google. The question becomes, how do you evaluate what technology will last beyond a few years? I don’t have an answer to that yet, but it’s something that I think all school librarians should keep in mind.
6. App smashing/app curation is the new collection building
This is the first time I’d heard the term “app smash,” but the concept is a natural progression given the way we use technology today. Rarely do you use one app, website, or program to complete a task. Just to write this paper, I’ve used various websites and Google Docs on my laptop. If I was doing something more complicated, it would be important to figure out how I could incorporate other apps into my assignment and what mobile technology would be useful for me, since I fully believe that we will all be using tablets and cell phones more than computers for non-word processing applications in the future.
7. Online communities of practice are the new faculty rooms/professional development
The librarian can no longer feign ignorance of new technology. It is all there to be discovered in online communities, whether that community is a message board offered through a professional organization or following a few hashtags on Twitter. It’s also a good way to get feedback from others in the field for your ideas.
8. Making is the new learning
I love makerspaces in libraries. You definitely need to tailor them to your community, but if you do a good job of curating what you include, they can be one of your students’ favorite spaces. I recently spoke with Mare Parker-O’Toole, who is the Makerspace Librarian at the Newton Free Library. She has a background in art, education, and library science (Makerspace, n.d.), and she feels strongly that what she is bringing to the library serves the Newton community in a way that no one else has been able to do.
If you choose to have old computers in your makerspace but no students are interested in exploring hardware, your makerspace is not serving its purpose. If you have lots of art supplies, but your kids want to be more involved with technology, you need to rethink what you are doing. Before you even start, see what the community is interested in so you invest smartly. Speak with the teachers to make sure you're not duplicating what is being done in other rooms. From the teachers, gather ideas on what tinkering projects students could undertake and from which they could benefit.
9. Augmented reality (AR) is the new reality
If nothing else, augmented reality gets students’ attention. I recently found the benefit of AR in education with my own children. The John F. Kennedy Presidential Library & Museum launched an app this summer that allows you to follow the Apollo 11 mission (“JFK Library…,” 2019). My children, who are four- and six-years-old, aren’t particularly interested in space, but they did find the app compelling, and I don’t think it was just because they had a screen in front of them. They wanted to play the games that try to recreate the difficulties of the mission, such as how to land the rocket on the moon. They got a very basic introduction to physics and engineering, while also getting to see the Saturn V Rocket launch in their own living room.
10. Life-wide is the new life-long learning (well, we like them both)
The idea of having a space where you can learn for the sake of learning and that's also a respite from classrooms where you are always being assessed is so important. By using the ideas presented in the rest of this list, students will hopefully be able to see how what they're learning in the classroom is used in the real world but also the reverse: they will be able to take their own lives into the classroom to enrich what is being taught.
Valenza has created a very strong list here of technology trends, and it’s disappointing that she doesn’t seem to have created a new list since the end of 2014. However, she is still a leader in the field and a quick Google can find articles that allow those interested in her opinion to see what she finds valuable in 2019 (Marcotte, 2019).
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